Mel Owen
Mel Healy made her first appearance in 1998 as a 25 year old woman. After only a year in the square, she married Ian Beale became Ian's second wife. However, hours after they wed, she wanted a divorce quoting, "I don't love you Ian. And I never have." She left the square in 2002 and returned in January of 2018, along with her son, Hunter. Biography When Mel arrived in the square in 1998, she was surprised to see her 'dead' brother wandering around the street. She was a typical good girl, a vicar's sister with bright blonde hair. When she married Ian, she had found out that he lied about his daughter, Lucy, having cancer and divorced him. Later when she married, Steve, she thought that this would be the marriage that stuck but after his death, she discovered he set her up and was responsible for her arrest for drug smuggling. In 2002, Mel left the square, pregnant with Steve's baby and fled to Portugal. Storylines Mel's first romantic interest in the square was Ian Beale and bonded straight away his children and grew to love them as her own. Mel and Ian plan to get married but Mel realises she doesn't love Ian and gets cold feet. Ian finds out that Mel doesn't love her and he decided to blackmail her to make her stay with him by telling her that his daughter, Lucy, had cancer. Mel fell for his trick and married him, however she later found out the truth and decided to divorce him and told him that she doesn't love him and that she never had. After Mel divorces Ian, she had brief flings with Billy Mitchell, Nathan Williams, Dan Sullivan and Phil Mitchell. However the only relationship that stuck was with Steve Owen, a criminal mastermind, and they marry in March 2001. On their wedding day, Phil, was shot by a mysterious person. Mel believes Steve was the person who did it, but he pleaded his innocence and when Phil recovered, he confronts, Lisa Fowler (the mother of his child). However, Steve and Phil plan to frame Dan Sullivan and he is wrongly arrested and imprisoned for the attempted murder of Phil Mitchell. After his release, believing that it was Steve who shot Phil, he kidnapped Mel as revenge for framing him. During these days of Mel being kidnapped, Dan tells Mel about Steve's dodgy dealings and his criminal ways. Eventually Phil rescues her and Dan flees. Later, Mel burns down her and Steve's club, E20, as revenge. Luckily she escapes and Steve woos her promising that they would flee to America together with Lisa and Mark Fowler and Lisa's daughter, Louise Mitchell. Though Mark soon changes his mind and Lisa is torn between staying or going and the plan is starting to fall apart as Steve drives away with Louise, with Phil chasing them closely behind. Steve swerves and crashes and the car sets on fire. Phil rescues his daughter, Louise, and is about to save Steve until the car explodes and Steve dies. After Steve's death, Mel is devastated as all of his lies are uncovered. One of these lies was that he had sold their club and house behind her back as well as having an affair with Phil's sister, Sam. On Lisa and Mark's wedding day, Mel was arrested for drug smuggling as she unwittingly signed one of Steve's papers, that was connected to his drug smuggling. After doing some time in prison, Phil bails her out by paying £30000 after she learns that she is pregnant. She later finds out that it was Lisa who shot Phill and not Steve. Feeling betrayed she toasted to Steve and fled to Portugal to raise her unborn baby. However, Lisa and Louise move to Portugal to live with them. When Mel returned to England in 2018, she learns that Ben Mitchell had stolen money from Aidan Maguire's money heist, her ex-husband's brother-in-law, and she followed him onto the ferry but Ben hides behind some posters to make her believe that she had lost him and it works. She returns to the square and rents 43 Albert Square from Jack Branning, who she later starts a romance with. After her son, Hunter, has his first time with Louise, Phil threatens to hurt him, so Mel seduces him, in order to prevent him from attacking Hunter. Mel then blackmails Phil by telling him that if he hurts Hunter she will show the tape to his wife, Sharon Mitchell. As Mel and Jack start their romance, Jack plans to propose to Mel, even though her son despises him. As he proposes to her, her ex-husband, Ray Kelly, interrupts telling her that Hunter had called him saying that Mel was in danger. Mel tells him that he's lying and Jack's proposal is ruined. After Ray talks to Mel, telling her that he wants her back, they have a one-night stand. Jack finds out about this and is forced to end things with Mel. Mel then turns to Ray for comfort and the pair start their love affair once more. A man named Jeff Reynolds meets Ray at the cafe and he addresses him as Simon. Hunter gets suspicious as he listens to Ray's phone calls and he finds money and a passport with the name Simon Wright in the boot of his car. Hunter confronts Ray and he tells him that he is working undercover and that it would be best if Mel didn't find out. However Mel soon gets suspicious and asks Jack to do some work and to look up Jeff Reynolds and to find his criminal record. It turns out that he has no criminal record. Mel then overhears Ray on the phone talking to a doctor with the surname, Matthews. Mel thinks nothing of it and goes to get a drink. She then hears a nurse, Sonia Fowler, talking to someone, saying that Dr Matthews is busy today. She then goes to the hospital and realises that the name Matthew is the name of a ward. She goes to the Matthews ward and walks past a door and, to much of her surprise, she sees Ray standing with another woman, kissing her on the head, and looking at a poorly child on a hospital bed. Mel cries and sits in the waiting room and the woman that Ray was standing with sits next to her and introduces herself as Maddie Wright. Mel then introduces herself and the pair get talking. Mel asks Maddie if she's married and she tells her that she has a husband named, Simon Wright, and that they have a four-year-old son named Jake. Mel tells Maddie that she was once married but he cheated on her. The two keep on meeting up, without Ray knowing, and eventually Mel reveals that she is together with the same person that she is. At first Maddie doesn't believe her but Mel shows her a picture of her an Ray. Maddie storms out and avoids Mel but she soon gets back in contact with her and finally agrees to work with her to get revenge. Mel decides to play Ray by asking him to move in with her and marry her. He agrees, thinking he can get away with it. Mel and Maddie find out that Ray has another wife called, Nicola. They find Nicola and the three think of a plan on how to expose Ray on Mel's wedding day. On New Years Day 2019, Mel and Ray's wedding is here and Ray's secret is about to be exposed. However, Ray figures out that Mel knows about his other wives and he begs her to stay with him and that he has written letters to the others saying that they can't be together because of the lies. Ray pulls a gun out of his pocket and points it at himself but Mel stops him from pulling the trigger and he gives her the gun. Mel tries to run out of the house but Ray grabs hold of her vale and it gets caught around her neck and this causes him to strangle her with it. Mel collapses and Ray believes she has died. At the church Ray, Hunter and the guests wait for Mel to arrive and Ray and Hunter have a conversation about that if things don't work out between Mel and Ray he will always be there for him. When they turn back to the door, Mel is there and this shocks ray as he thought that he had killed her. The tow have a brief argument in the storage room before they elope and Mel threatens Ray that if he doesn't marry her she will show everyone her bruises from when he tried to kill her. The two marry and when everyone congratulates them, Ray's other wives come to congratulate him patronisingly and the police show up and arrest ray for bigamy. When the police are driving him to the station, he fakes having a heart attack and taser one police officer and threatens to taser the other and the police let him go after being locked in the police car. Hunter confronts Ray when he gets back home after escaping and he kidnaps him. He calls Mel telling her that if she doesn't meet him in the woods, then he will kill Hunter. Mel drives to the woods and tries to find Hunter but Ray jumps out at her and she pulls the gun out in front of him and tells him to lay down on his front so that she can tie him up. He tells her that he is with his friend but Mel doesn't fall for it and rings Hunter's phone and she finds him tied up. She releases him and they run to the car and attempt to drive off, however Ray escaped from the ropes and hit the car window with a shovel. Mel reversed and accidentally hit him with the car. She gets out to see if he's dead. She realises that he is so she digs a hole and buries him in it. When she stands up Ray grabbed her leg and tried to strangle her and kill her. Before he could finish a gunshot was heard and blood was seen running down Ray's body. A dark figure holding a gun appeared and it was revealed to be Hunter. Mel and Hunter drag his body to the hole that she dug up earlier and bury him. Again. When they get home Mel puts her wedding dress and Hunter's suit in a black bag to give to charity. A knock at the door makes the pair believe that it is either Ray or the police. It was the police and they asked whether they had seen Ray after he had escaped from the police and they both told them that they hadn't seen him. Hunter wanted to go to the police and turn himself in but Mel persuaded him to come back home and Hunter was last seen holding a gun to his face, smiling. On February 11th 2019, Ray's body was found in the woods and the next day the police turn up at Mel's door demanding answers. She uses Jack as a witness to say that they went for a drive. Jack goes along with it and lies to the police. In Autumn of 2019, Mel discovered one of Sharon Mitchell's biggest secrets. She knew that the father of her baby was not Phil Mitchell's but that it was Keanu Taylor's. Mel wanted to get back at the Mitchells for not giving her son, Hunter a good funeral. Mel started to blackmail Sharon by telling her to do extreme actions. She told Sharon to get Louise to move in with her and Lisa and then she went even further by telling her to buy a villa in Portugal for her, Lisa, Louise and Louise's baby to live in. Months had passed and Mel was ready to tell Phil all about Sharon's infidelity. Mel drove to the airport to meet Phil after he had gone away on business but Sharon knew her plan and followed her. Down a motorway, Mel rang Billy and told him to put her on speaker phone so that everyone at Louise's birthday party could hear what she was about to say. However Sharon put Mel off her driving when she was driving next to her and Mel crashed into a parked car and her car ended up on its roof. Sharon helped get Mel out of the car and the pair walked off the road. But Mel was certain that her dead son was calling her from the burning car so she got up and started to walk to the car but before Sharon could stop her, she was struck by a van and was killed. Her funeral was organised by her best friend, Lisa Fowler and guests showed up to pay their respects, including Louise, her ex-husband Ian, her ex-boyfriend Jack and other's who loved her.